This edition of Noise Reduction is a little Google lovefest. As I mentioned in the last episode, we’re rolling out the new earHeroSports.com.au project. So, the team has been doing a little refresher on setting up the tracking and tagging of Google Analytics and AdWords to make sure we’re hitting the “best practice” mark.

Whilst going through the process, we stumbled across a few great articles which we thought we’d throw together for this week’s blast. If you haven’t taken the time recently to review your data, this edition could be the perfect catalyst.

“There is no magic formula as such. It’s when opportunity meets a skill set,
and you’re able to take advantage of it. And that’s what happened for us…” —Phil Barham

Phil Barham took My Family™ Stickers from an idea to a business that has sold 8 million stickers in 23 countries. Pete talks to Phil about the critical elements of identifying his market, supporting his retail outlets and taking massive action.

From Australia, to Japan, and now North America, it seems the world can’t get enough of this episode’s guest, Phil Barham.

Well, more accurately Phil’s quirky idea — My Family™ Stickers. You know, the stick-figure drawings you’ve probably seen on the back window of cars — everywhere.

Phil and his partner Monica have taken My Family™ Stickers from an idea to a business that has sold over 8 million stickers in 23 countries.

In this edition of PreneurCast, Pete talks to Phil about the road to his success — the critical elements of identifying his market, supporting his retail outlets, and taking massive action.

There has been a lot of online discussion about these stickers. How did he deal with all of the tongue-in-cheek backlash that came about it? Listen to this episode of PreneurCast with Phil and find out.

Ahh, anyone here remember that movie? Goodness! It was the Golden Age of the Web, and we were all (Internet) explorers, weren’t we?

Email is nothing new. It’s been around for decades now and everybody (including your grandma) is using it. But think about how much it’s evolved. Now, for a generation of young people, the meaning behind the title of the 1990s classic romantic comedy, You’ve Got Mail, is all but lost, as no one – repeat: no one! – is still using the once-familiar audio notification from which the film gets its name. In the years since that film debuted, email has morphed. Nearly everyone has taken to viewing their email messages in their Web browser.

And the rise in popularity of SMS messaging via mobile devices has caused many people to adopt a shorthand, TXT-style approach to hammering out emails, just as they rattle off rapid-fire texts to their friends. This is despite the fact that, for the most part, the semi-archaic terms and conventions, which themselves derive from the workplace memorandum of yesteryear, have largely remained constant. What’s more, lacking professionalism can undermine your professional emails, which still call for a certain degree of formality, or at the very least, form and function.

One email statistics report points out that workers spend as much as one quarter of their day, on average, working with emails. Add to that the fact that other research confirms what we already suspect, that people feel inundated by email messages on a nearly constant basis, and you can see how important it is to use email effectively. With all that in mind, we’ve put together this essay to bring you up to speed on the state of email at this point, with the help of seven essential email etiquette rules.

And, as a marketer, email is an essential part of your day. But the field is crowded, as an estimated 54% of emails are marketing messages. Unfortunately, only 17% of emails are opened. Still, more than 60% of marketers say they believe email marketing works (according to data from Epsilon). To cut through all the noise inside your recipients’ inboxes, you need to know and employ some best practices when it comes to email marketing. If you can beef up that 17% open rate with compelling emails, you’ll be well on your way to boosting your conversion rate by well over the needed 10%, if you’re following along with the 7 Levers of Business framework.

It’s a slightly little quieter Noise Reduction this week, as the whole team has been “heads down, bums up” focused on getting a new project ready for the public launch next week.

Platinum Advisory Board members know we’ve been working on this for a while — and it’s something I am super excited to be doing. If you’re a cyclist, here’s a little preview and an early bird discount —www.earHeroSports.com.au/PreRelease

Safer cycling is a project that’s close to my heart, and I am pumped to be back playing in that B2C space again as well.

Keep an eye out on the blog as we share some of the marketing test results and lessons learnt with this new project!

Dan Coyle is the author of The Talent Code, a book about how some of the world’s most successful athletes train and develop their talent. There are a lot of lessons in the book for all walks of life, not just sport, and we discuss these in this episode of the PreneurCast podcast.

Drawing on some crazy cutting-edge neurology and first-hand research gathered on “field trips” to nine of the world’s leading talent hotbeds — from the baseball fields of the Caribbean to a classical-music academy in upstate New York — this conversation with Dan covers the key elements that will allow you to develop your talent and optimize your performance, not just in sports but also in business, marketing and entrepreneurship.

Deep Practice — Everyone knows that practice is a key to success. What everyone doesn’t know is that specific kinds of practice can increase skill up to ten times faster than conventional practice.

Ignition — We all need a little motivation to get started. But what separates truly high achievers from the rest of the pack?

Master Coaching — What are the secrets of the world’s most effective? They all have “the right type” of coaches.

These three key elements work together within your brain to form what is called myelin, a microscopic neural substance that adds vast amounts of speed and accuracy to your thoughts and movements. Neuroscientists have discovered that myelin might just be the key — the foundation of all forms of greatness — from Michelangelo’s to Michael Jordan’s.

The awesome news about myelin is that it isn’t fixed at birth. No, no, no, it grows… and like anything that grows, it can be cultivated and nourished.

So how do you grow myelin? Listen to this episode of PreneurCast with Dan Coyle and find out.

In this episode, you will learn:

The inner workings of world-class athletic training centers

What “deep practice” looks like, and how you can apply it to your life

How “practicing on the edge of your ability” will unlock your potential

The purpose of myelin inside your brain

How to “steal” from the habits of your successful peers

The importance of coaches, and why all practices can be seen as sports

Welcome to the newest installment of our series covering promotional calendar events for a specific month! November presents a slew of interesting promotional opportunities, particularly for those businesses operating internationally, as the USA ramps up into its holiday season with full force and many countries partake in “Black Friday” sales the day after Americans celebrate Thanksgiving.

Oddly enough, there are no official public holidays in Australia during November, but there are still plenty of chances to beef up your promotional efforts with some worldwide celebrations and weeks of recognition. Although November holds some quirky days of celebration in various parts of the globe, we’re going to eschew National Plan Your Epitaph Day (2 November) and Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day (15 November) in favor of more interesting and engaging holidays. For similar reasons, we will urge you to skip over World Toilet Day, unless you happen to be in the plumbing trade (in which case, 19 November may be a great promotional opportunity for you).

In an effort to beef up the fun in your marketing and see more conversions as a result (one of the 7 Levers of Business, of course), we’ve put together this essay covering clever promotional ideas for November 2014. Without further ado, let’s get started!

This is a super exciting update to write, as this week we started the “new season” of the PreneurCast Podcast.

After a couple of months’ hiatus, we’re back with some amazing interviews and conversations, ready to be shot out of the pipe – including Michael Gerber, Robert Allen, Daniel Coyle. It’s been so much fun chatting with some of these business and marketing legends, and I’m so excited for you to listen, learn, apply – and then get your feedback in the comments below! Now we decided to start the new season off with a conversation with a true direct-response marketing pioneer – Joseph Sugarman.

Tagged the “Mail Order Maverick” by The New York Times, Joe is a groundbreaker in every sense of the word.

Through his company JS&A, using direct marketing, Joe was a pioneer and led the world in marketing what was then space-age technology – pocket calculators, cordless phones, digital watches and personal home computers. Not only did he lead the way with the products he chose to market, but also in the way he marketed them – introducing the concept of using toll-free numbers to take credit card orders over the phone, which was unheard of at the time. He then stumbled upon this new thing called Infomercials, which led to the sale of 20 million pairs of BluBlockers sunglasses. Joe and I talk about this incredible journey and the subsequent books he’s written on the subject of marketing – Triggers, The Adweek Copywriting Handbook, and Success Factors. This episode is such a great one to start off this new series of shows with, so sit back and enjoy Joe Sugarman.

Pete Williams is an entrepreneur, author, and marketer from Melbourne, Australia.

Before being honored “Australia’s Richard Branson” in media publications all over the continent, Pete was just 21 years old when he sold Australia’s version of Yankee Stadium, The Melbourne Cricket Ground For Under $500! Don’t believe it? You will! Check out the story in the FAQ section (it really is our most asked question).

Since then, he’s done some cool stuff like write the international smash hit ‘How to Turn Your Million-Dollar Idea Into a Reality’ (+ the upcoming ‘It’s Not About the Product‘) and he’s created a bunch of companies including Infiniti Telecommunications, On Hold Advertising, Simply Headsets and Preneur Group.

Lots of other people think he’s pretty good too! He’s been announced as the Global Runner-Up in the JCI Creative Young Entrepreneur Awards for 2009, the Southern Region Finalist in the Ernst & Young 2010 Entrepreneur of the Year, and a member of SmartCompany’s Top 30 Under 30.

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When we talk about business growth, making money and increasing your profits here on the site or in our emails, we're not implying you, or anyone will achieve any results or do anything! You have to work your ass off to get success. For example, if you don't take action you've got no chance of achieving anything, let alone grow your business and make the type of income we talk about. The case-studies and examples you'll see are from a select group of clients or actual projects of Pete's ... and not the average. So don't expect to read an essay or buy a product we recommend and be able to start flying first class tomorrow. These are not earnings claims of any kind - as we all know, most people who subscribe to our community, read the blog, or invest in business growth courses, at the first sign of turbulence don't do anything and those that do are not guaranteed success. As they say in the classics "results are not typical". Like anything in life, business entails risk. Having someone there to support you is essential and can help minimise and mitigate any risk you might face on your journey.... but nothing can ever eliminate risk all together, no matter what you are doing. And speaking of products and services - whenever we can, we use an affiliate link when recommending a product or service. We don’t charge for the material we share here on the site or in the emails we send; and the financial relationships we seek out when recommending products & services helps cover the costs for you and the entire community. You are not charged a single cent more, and compensation we get for recommending products does not influence what we recommend at all. We pick the recommendation first, write the essay, record the podcast etc, and then try and get compensation second - every time!